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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26659663">it's real if you close your eyes and pretend</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlorBexter/pseuds/FlorBexter'>FlorBexter</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>My Engineer (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fake Dating, Hospital Setting, Humour, M/M, Pining, Romance, Tumblr Prompt</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 11:15:41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,511</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26659663</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlorBexter/pseuds/FlorBexter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>“Confirm what?” </em>
  <br/>
  <em>Frong rolled his eyes and buttoned his jacket up. The party was only one door away and he needed to say his goodbyes and go home to lay in bed and bemoan his poor life choices.</em>
  <br/>
  <em>“Fake Dating, Phi, it’s a thing.”</em>
</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Thara/Frong</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>130</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>it's real if you close your eyes and pretend</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>
  <strong>For the prompt on Tumblr: Fake Dating</strong>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Fake Dating is one of my favourite tropes to write for. The misunderstandings, the shenanigans, THE PINING! Love it. So thanks again for the prompt and I hope y'all have fun reading ^^</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I really don’t understand why it has to be now of all times.”</p><p>Frong turned around slowly, the key to his office already in the lock, and tried to smile his politest smile. It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t easy because Dr Thara was his self-appointed nemesis and he wanted to strangle him on the best of days.</p><p>“It has to be now because up until now you have successfully avoided me.”</p><p>He saw out of the corner of his eyes how Thara made a “Who? Me?” gesture while having that damn kind smile on his face that drove Frong wild. Sometimes he wished Thara would frown at him angrily or snap some impatient words just to have the feeling he was more than just a colleague for Thara. That he evoked more in Thara than just mild annoyance.</p><p>The noise from the party flowed through the corridors of the administration building and as much as Frong liked to mingle he already planned to make up an excuse to go home after he had made Thara sign those damn papers. His team had been responsible for planning the opening ceremony of the new hospital wing, but he hadn’t been involved much despite nodding while his colleagues had presented their plans in their weekly meetings.</p><p>“Here and here,” he said and pushed the clip board against Thara’s chest. Thara’s eyes strayed from his bookshelves over the amount of paperwork on his desk towards the huge bouquet his mum had brought him just yesterday and Frong took the liberty and poked him with the pen.</p><p>“Oh yes, here?”</p><p>“And here,” Frong added because it would be in typical Thara’s fashion to just sign once and then Frong had to run after him again. After the last stroke he quickly took the documents and put them in a folder on his desk.</p><p>“Thank you!”, he said, the smile etched painfully on his face and he ushered Thara out of his office because maybe it was just an office but Thara took up too much space, not only in Frong’s head, and Frong didn’t need to come back on the next day and imagine to smell Thara’s aftershave because he had lingered too long.</p><p>Nemesis. He had to concentrate on Thara making his life harder, determined to be the most obnoxious doctor Frong had to work with in his career in hospital management.</p><p>Nemesis. As much as he wanted to kiss Thara he wanted to punch him just as much. So. He straightened up his tie and wanted to tell Thara that he would go to the toilet to avoid having to go back to the party with him but got pushed back against the wall as they heard a group of people laughing and talking coming their way.</p><p>“No! I tell you they disappeared down this corridor.”</p><p>Frong looked at the arm across his chest and then frowned at Thara who, with no explanation whatsoever, shuffled closer to the end of the hallway to peek around the corner.</p><p>“How old are the rumours of them dating anyway? No one ever caught them. They don’t have the same address. I checked with Khun Chaow in HR.”</p><p>“You don’t need to live together to date!”</p><p>“But they bicker all the time.”</p><p>“Yes, because they’re in love. Dr Preeda already thought about giving Dr Thara the rooms in the new wing so they would be closer together. Maybe then someone will finally get the proof of them dating.”</p><p>Before Frong could fully comprehend the horror of the hospital thinking him and Thara dating for what seemed like a long time a hand fisted in his white button-down and he had to swat at Thara’s arm to get it away from his clothes.</p><p>“What are you doing?”, he hissed and finally Thara looked at him but the shine in his eyes was disconcerting. </p><p>“The new wing has the view towards the park,” he said and Frong got a sinking feeling in his stomach.</p><p>“I know,” he answered because the new wing was an addition to the administration building and their look over the park had been overshadowed by the construction noise for the last year.</p><p>“A stress-free atmosphere for my patients, with the park and the parking lot nearby so they don’t need to walk that far.”</p><p>Frong rolled his eyes. Why was Thara always showing that he was a compassionate doctor at the worst possible moment? The new wing was perfect for Thara’s patients who had to process that they needed brain surgery or who came back for check-up’s nervous about their results.</p><p>“You really think they will give the new wing to Dr Thara just because he might be dating P’Frong?”</p><p>The voices were close now, they had to stand in the next hallway and Thara’s hand was fisting the fabric of Frong’s jacket and why would that crazy idea forming in Frong’s head hurt any less than his first day at the hospital and Thara smiling at him, congratulating him and telling him that he’s happy to have his ‘Nong’ working with him?</p><p><em>“We’re bro’s, right?”,</em> he had said and had dared to pat Frong on the back as if he was some kind of father figure for him. Thara would never see more in him than a friend of his younger cousin Frong had realized that day.</p><p>“Fine,” Frong said and he said it more to himself than anyone else and he ignored Thara’s “What?” and just said “Watch out,” before he pushed Thara slightly forward so that they stumbled slightly into the other hallway directly in front of the group of hospital staff gossiping about them.</p><p>Frong knew how appearance mattered. The truth was irrelevant when Frong’s shirt was crumpled up as if someone had pulled him against them for a deep kiss, when Thara’s hand was still on his jacket and he had a dazed look on his face because the thought about the new wing being his had overwhelmed him.</p><p>Frong cleared his throat, as if embarrassed and pushed his hands through his hair.</p><p>“Sawasdee khrap,” Frong said and did a Wai while he deliberately made a step away from Thara and everyone’s eyes latched onto Thara’s hand slowly parting from Frong’s jacket. Some did a Wai back while some just continued to stare at them.</p><p>“We should go back to the party,” Frong said with an apologizing glance to the group and put his hand on the small of Thara’s back to move him forward. There was an audible gasp from their audience and maybe they would have questioned their charade with Thara mumbling “What?” a couple of times but their attention was not on Thara’s face. It was actually a nice change of paths because more often than not it was Frong who was left speechless by Thara. Frong pushed Thara along until a few more hallways were between them and their colleagues.</p><p>“What happened?”, Thara asked.</p><p>“I just got you the new wing. They will tell Dr Preeda, who will want to see for themself but since we won’t confirm anything, they’re going to give you the rooms.”</p><p>“Confirm what?”</p><p>Frong rolled his eyes and buttoned his jacket up. The party was only one door away and he needed to say his goodbyes and go home to lay in bed and bemoan his poor life choices.</p><p>“Fake Dating, Phi, it’s a thing.”</p>
<hr/><p>“It’s a food delivery. Love food delivery. Food, delivered with love.”</p><p>Frong had told himself that he wouldn’t look up. He had stuff to do and no time to play Thara’s daily game of ‘embarrassing Frong as much as possible’. As he heard the giggle outside, who could be anyone from his assistant to his supervisor – because Thara had that effect on people -, he couldn’t suppress his annoyance anymore and threw Thara a look who quickly closed the door behind him. Maybe he thought it would ruin their fake dating ruse when people saw that Frong glared daggers at him.</p><p>“I really brought you food,” he said after Frong just looked at him for a while and put a container on Frong’s desk atop some important documents.</p><p>“Thank you,” Frong said because his mum didn’t raise an unpolite man and he really was hungry.</p><p>“How is the move going?” Thara interpreted his question as a request to make himself comfortable in Frong’s office and he immediately flopped down on a chair and unpacked the sandwiches he brought.</p><p>“At this moment they are drilling big screws into the floor to secure the MRI and then no one can take the rooms away from me anymore,” Thara said and the faraway look of utter bliss on his face made Frong sigh.</p><p>“Congratulations.”</p><p>Thara stretched out his legs and took a huge bite from his sandwich.</p><p>“Thank you. What are you doing there?”</p><p>“Making it appear as if we have the money to buy a new autoclave for the lab.”</p><p>“We don’t have the money for that?”</p><p>Frong looked up and maybe he was now the one with a weird shine in his eyes because Thara raised an eyebrow at him.</p><p>“We will have the money for it,” Frong said because he refused to let the years studying boring business administration lectures be for nothing.</p><p>“Shouldn’t the lab chef make the proposal for new equipment?”</p><p>“I’m better at it,” Frong said and it wasn’t even bragging. He wasn’t going to let something like <em>wording</em> get in the way of the hospital getting the best machines possible. But he knew, that at this very moment, he was writing utter garbage in the proposal because Thara distracted him. The whole fake dating thing distracted him more than he thought it would. Which was just another proof that he needed to run his ideas by his brothers before he made decisions. They were really good at frowning at him and shaking their heads pitifully.</p><p>He leaned back with a sigh and took one of the sandwiches. Thara even thought about getting him some without tomatoes and he needed to stop this madness as soon as possible. It was disconcerting that he was getting warm feelings because of tomatoes.</p><p>“Do you want to fake a messy break-up or a quiet one?”, he asked and for whatever reason, his heart decided to pound quicker and he hated himself for that. It wasn’t like they had gone the full yard with this whole fake relationship. They never had met outside of the hospital for fake dates or had told their families about this. All Thara did was bringing him food while smiling brightly at everyone he encountered before he made a huge announcement to enter Frong’s office. Like the nuisance he was.</p><p>Thara stared at him now, a bit of lettuce hanging out of his mouth and Frong refused to be charmed.</p><p>“What do you mean?”, Thara asked.</p><p>“You said they aren’t able to take the new wing away from you now. We got what we wanted. We can stop this.”</p><p>“But I just bought the new terrarium.”</p><p>“The… what?”</p><p>Thara made a hand gesture that must mean something but Frong had no idea what.</p><p>“The new terrarium, for Cupcake. I thought it would live up my office to have him there.”</p><p>Frong squinted at Thara and refused to succumb to the desire to swear at him but the <em>‘what the fuck is Cupcake!’</em> already burned on his tongue.</p><p>“Cupcake?”, he asked instead, and he really shouldn’t have because the rest of his lunch break was spent looking at pictures of a lizard.</p><p>He later realized that Thara had successfully deflected the topic and that he had no idea if they were going to ‘break up’ or not in the foreseeable future.</p>
<hr/><p>“Please close your eyes for a moment.”</p><p>“It’s just a bump,” Frong grumbled but did as he was told. Thara in doctor-mode was strangely compelling, and it didn’t even hurt much when Thara carefully palpated the swelling on his forehead.</p><p>“It was quite a sight seeing Nurse Fiat carrying you here.”</p><p>Frong snorted. “He didn’t carry me.”</p><p>“He had you flung over his shoulders.”</p><p>Frong opened his eyes to glare at Thara but got hushed and closed his eyes again.</p><p>“Do you feel dizzy or disorientated?”</p><p>“I’m disorientated, yes.”</p><p>“Really?”</p><p>Frong snorted again. “I’m disorientated because I thought they would bring me to the emergency room and not to you.”</p><p>“I guess they think my loving care will be more efficient than what they’re doing in the ER.”</p><p>Did Thara sound smug? Frong hadn’t seen him for almost two weeks because he had gone back to his old habit of disappearing the moment Frong saw him. Frong had the feeling it was about the whole ‘lets-break-up-our-fake-relationship’ thing and he wondered why? Was there more Thara wanted out of their fake dating? Was there another wing he wanted for himself? Did he want to transform the whole hospital in a centrum for treating brain diseases?</p><p>“Just give me painkillers should I get a headache later,” he suggested and then frowned. Was Thara massaging his temples? What kind of medical examination was this?</p><p>“Let me get you something cold for your bump. As long as you’re not dizzy or feel like you need to throw up everything should be fine.”</p><p>Frong finally opened his eyes and tried not to be too obvious about his curiosity about Thara’s new office. It was significantly closer to Frong’s own office than his old one, which should make it easier to track him down for signatures, it was also a lot bigger than his old one, fresh jasmines in a colourful vase, and a huge terrarium stood at one wall. The home of Cupcake the lizard.</p><p>“Don’t startle, this is going to be cold.”</p><p>“I can hold it,” Frong said but his hand hovered uselessly in the air while Thara put is chair closer to Frong’s and gently pressed a cold pack on his forehead.</p><p>Thara’s gentleness was, as always, the thing that undid Frong. He had witnessed it from their first encounter - years ago - while Frong had still been in university and since then on frequent occasions in the hospital. The way he talked to his patients, how he brought them flowers just to cheer them up for a couple of minutes, the way he endured the cold of the ice pack himself to take the strain from Frong. You felt like you were important around Thara and it could get in the way of convincing yourself Dr Thara was the enemy.</p><p>Frong knew that Thara thought of him as a spoiled cat which just needed to be scratched behind the ears to make it purr, which fine, was mostly true, but it was better for Frong’s state of mind to push the frenemies agenda than giving in and let himself be petted. Because he had no idea, or rather knew, that Thara didn’t want him as his favourite house cat and now he needed to stop thinking in cat metaphors; maybe the door had hit his head a lot harder than he thought.</p>
<hr/><p>“This is on so many levels unprofessional and childish,” Frong hissed and involuntarily made a step backwards and almost crashed into the shelves behind him. Thara surged forward to grab him by the shoulders and they stared at the package full of something on the highest shelf, hovering, quivering dangerously close at the edge of the shelf. Frong had phantom pain about the package hitting his head.</p><p>“Why are we hiding from my mum in a supply closet? What madness is this? Why are they even so many supply closets in this hospital?”</p><p>“You campaigned for more supply closets between the stations to shorten the ways and to have them individualized so supplies don’t go to waste.”</p><p>Frong stared at Thara in utter bafflement. That had been a rhetorical question for god’s sake!</p><p>“What are you talking about?”</p><p>“I read the protocols of the management meetings.”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“I’m in the mailing list.”</p><p>Frong wasn’t sure if they had stumbled into an alternate universe when Thara had grabbed him after he had found him to tell him that his mum had been in his office to talk about their relationship. It felt like it.</p><p>His mum had been about to round the corner and for whatever reason Frong had decided to comply with Thara’s childish plan to hide from her. Now he had no idea where she was and if she would see them when they would come out of the closet – ha! – and he really didn’t need that kind of conversation.</p><p>He knew where the jasmines on Thara’s desk came from and he knew that his mum always visited Thara when she came by to bring him his own bouquet but they never talked about it and he feared that his mum knew why, because he hadn’t been able to shut up about Thara when he had been in university. Oh, the horror of mothers who knew too much about their kids.  </p><p>“I just… I didn’t want to lie to her, so I escaped,” Thara admitted and the closet didn’t have much space for two grown men to do much in terms of movement, but he was able to convey his embarrassment with a little shrug of his shoulders.</p><p>“My mum has three sons, we lied to her plenty of times, she would have forgiven you,” Frong mumbled. He edged closer to the door. Would he hear something? What if she knew they were in there and stood in front of the door?</p><p>“This is a mess,” he sighed and stumbled again, stumbled forward as something soft fell against his back and then sighed against Thara’s shoulder because of course, of course, this was going to happen. Thara’s hand hovered over his hips and he nevertheless felt the warmth of them and wasn’t it telling that Thara didn’t even want to touch him?</p><p>“You okay?”, Thara asked against his ear, soft and careful and Frong just nodded.</p><p>“These closets are health hazards,” Frong said and straightened up. This was stupid. He was almost thirty years old; he wasn’t going to hide from his mother just because he made a dumb decision.</p><p>“Let’s get out of here,” he said, “We just go with the truth and if she doesn’t believe the fake dating thing we say something along the lines of <em>‘our relationship was short but sweet and we are better off as bros’.” </em></p><p>“Bros?”</p><p>Thara’s hands were still almost around his waist and Frong would have liked to have some distance between them because he felt like he could feel Thara breath, but whatever had fallen off the shelf blocked his way back.</p><p>“I didn’t know you think of us as bros,” Thara said and whatever discomfort Frong was feeling got washed away when his irritation took over and he <em>had to</em> look at Thara’s face.</p><p>“I’m sorry? You were the one who declared us bros. My first workday, 15 September, I remember it clearly.”</p><p>Which was maybe not the best thing to do, Frong thought; to acknowledge that something like that was still a clear memory in his mind. He couldn’t suppress the grimace taking over his face and why where they still in this dumb closet? He needed to be able to hide his face from Thara, this was far too close for his comfort.</p><p>And then he felt Thara’s hands on his hips, warm and so unmistakable <em>there </em>and hands really shouldn’t feel like they were able to leave a brand mark on his skin. He warily glanced at Thara who just smiled at him and if he was going to do something in his life it was wiping that damn kind smile off Thara’s face but…</p><p>The warmth spread through him, from his skin to his bones and he felt the gentle pressure of Thara’s hand, like coaxing and knew that if he broke out of Thara’s hold, Thara would let him.</p><p>“Frong,” Thara said, his words on his ear, like a spell and Frong swallowed. Thara’s mouth almost touched his skin, and if Frong ever had to choose to remember one touch for eternity it was that of Thara’s lips grazing his cheek, from his ear over his jawline to the edge of his lips.</p><p>“Frong… We aren’t bros,” Thara murmured and the tiny little sound escaping Frong’s lips was a bit embarrassing but mostly the truest he has ever been around Thara.</p><p>And yes, maybe they really weren’t bros, maybe their relationship had evolved and the little forth and back they did all the time was more, more of running away from each other, but still orbiting around each other, and always coming back, more flirting than Frong would have ever admitted.</p><p>He tilted his head a bit, bringing their lips closer together and said: “We may not be bros but whatever happens next doesn’t happen in a supply closet in the hospital.”</p><p>Thara’s delighted smile was worth the possibility of stumbling out and running into his mother.</p><p> </p><p>end.</p>
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